ISLAMABAD: The fire that raged through the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh last week was a “planned and purposeful act of sabotage,” according to the investigators.
On March 5, a fire in Bangladesh displaced 15,000 Rohingya refugees and destroyed 2,800 shelters. According to the government official in charge of the investigation, militant groups started the fire in order to “domesticate” the camps.
Campfire broke out at multiple locations
According to Abu Safian, fires broke out in multiple locations at the same time, proving that it was planned. There were no injuries. However, the fire destroyed homes and destroyed key infrastructure networks such as schools, medical clinics, and service points in several districts of the Cox Bazaar camp. The seven-person panel formed to investigate the fire after interviewing 150 eyewitnesses, presented its report on Sunday. It advised further investigation to identify the groups responsible for the incident.
According to the report, the fire broke out at 14:30 local time (08:30 GMT) in Camp 11 of Cox Bazar in south-eastern Bangladesh and was brought under control by the evening. Cox Bazar is home to over one million refugees who fled Myanmar after a military crackdown on the Rohingya ethnic minority.
They live in bamboo huts with thin plastic sheeting. These overcrowded and squalid refugee camps are prone to fires. According to early reports from the Cox Bazar fire, the flames spread quickly through gas cookers common in the camps.
According to a Bangladesh defence ministry report released last month, there were 222 fire incidents in Rohingya camps between January 2021 and December 2022, including 60 cases of arson. In March 2021, at least 15 people were killed and 50,000 were displaced after a massive fire ripped through a settlement camp.
